Look forward to an activity-packed Saturday as Zoo Atlanta hosts Play the Animal Way, its annual signature event highlighting the wild world of animal enrichment, and International Vulture Awareness Day, a global event highlighting some of Earth’s most crucial creatures.
Play the Animal Way: Enrichment is a vital component of superior animal care at accredited zoological organizations, and Zoo Atlanta has a robust enrichment program in place year-round for all species. Animal enrichment, which may take the form of objects, foods, scents, feeder puzzles and more, stimulates animals’ natural behaviors and adaptations while promoting their well-being. Play the Animal Way is a notable opportunity for visitors to see enrichment in action as animals throughout the Zoo discover colorful surprises in their habitats. Don’t miss: enrichment on the all-new African Savanna, opened August 8. The immersive transformation features new and expanded habitats for African elephants, giraffes and more.
Not to be excluded from the fun, human guests are also invited to try enrichment of their own at stations throughout the Zoo. Activities will include opportunities to make enrichment items for the animals; a foraging game; a termite mound activity; and a scent station.
International Vulture Awareness Day: As scavengers, vultures are vital to ecosystems around the world. By consuming carrion, they aid human populations by helping to keep diseases such as botulism, cholera, rabies, anthrax and tuberculosis in check. Despite these essential roles in the environment, vultures are the most threatened group of birds in the world, particularly in Africa, where some species have declined by more than 95 percent.
Event highlights will include education stations devoted to vulture conservation; a chance to “be a scavenger” to find out firsthand what it’s like to be part of nature’s cleanup crew; an opportunity to meet a bird care specialist; and more. Exclusive International Vulture Awareness Day buttons will be available for purchase during the event, with proceeds benefiting the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) African Vulture SAFE Program.
Zoo Atlanta is located at 800 Cherokee Avenue SE, Atlanta GA 30315. 404-624-9453 (WILD). Zoo Atlanta is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube. You can follow along with the fun by using Hashtag: #OnlyZooAtl.
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